Letters94 Letter XCIV. To the abbot of a certain monastery at York, from which the prior had departed, taking several religious with him. (A.D. 1132)
Letter XCIV. To the abbot of a certain monastery at York, from which the prior had departed, taking several religious with him. (A.D. 1132)
1. You write to me from beyond the sea to ask of me advice which I should have preferred that you had sought quitted you. Otherwise, if their conscience, like that of the Apostle, did not reproach them, their peace would not have been disturbed (Rom. xiv. 22). But what can I do that I may be hurtful to no one neither by my silence nor by my reply to the questions asked me? Thus, perhaps, I may relieve myself of the difficulty if I shall send those who question me to a person more learned, and whose authority is more reverend and sacred than mine. Pope S. Gregory says in his book on the Pastoral Rule, "Whosoever has proposed to himself a greater good does an unlawful thing in subordinating it to a lesser good." And he proves this by a citation from the Gospel, saying, No one putting his haud to the plough and looking back is fit for the kingdom of God (S. Luke ix. 62); and he proceeds: "He who renounces a more perfect state which he has embraced, to follow another which is less so, is precisely the man who looks back" (Part iii. c. 28). The same Pope, in his third Homily on Ezekiel, adds: "There are people who taste virtue, set themselves to practise it, and while doing so contemplate undertaking actions still better; but afterwards drawing back, abandon those better things which they had proposed to themselves. They do not, it is true, leave off the good practices they had begun, but they fail to realize those better ones which they had meditated. To human judgment these seem to stand fast in the good work, but to the eyes of Almighty God they have fallen, and failed in what they contemplated."
2. Here is a mirror. In it let your Religious consider, not the features of their faces, but the fact of their turning back. Here let them determine and distinguish their motives, their thoughts, accusing or excusing them with that sentence which the spiritual man passes who judges all things, and is himself judged by no one. I, indeed, cannot rashly determine whether the state which they have left or that which they have embraced was the greater or less, the higher or lower, the severer or the more lax. Let them judge according to this rule of S. Gregory. But to you, Reverend Father, I declare, with as much positive assurance as plain truth, that it is not at all desirable that you should set yourself to quench the Spirit. Hinder not him, it is said, who is able to do good, but if thou canst, do good also thyself (Prov. iii. 27, VuLG.). It more befits you to be proud of the good works of your sons, since a wise son is the glory of his father (Prov. x. i). For the rest, let no one make it a cause of complaint against me that I have not hidden in my heart the righteousness of God, unless, perhaps, I have spoken less of it than I ought, for the sake of avoiding scandal.
1. Consilium expetitis a me litteris transmarinis, quod utinam ab alio potius quaesissetis. Coarctor siquidem e duobus. Si enim non respondero, taciturnitas contemptum quodammodo sonare videbitur. Respondere autem sine periculo me posse non video, cum quidquid respondero, necesse sit aut scandalum cuipiam generare, aut reddere securum quemquam plus quam oportet, aut certe in quo non oportet. Quod a vobis recesserunt fratres vestri, nec nostro, nec nostrorum factum est, me sciente, consilio vel hortatu. Credimus autem ex Deo fuisse, quod nec tantis potuit dissolvi conatibus. Credimus hoc idem et ipsos sentire fratres, qui nostrum tantopere de se ipsis consilium flagitant, credo remordente eos conscientia quod retro abierint. Alioquin beati sunt secundum Apostolum, si se non judicant in eo quod probant. Caeterum quid faciam, ut interrogatus nec silendo, nec respondendo molestus sim cuiquam? Ita fortassis expediar, si misero eos qui me interrogant, ad doctiorem, et cujus reverentior sanctiorque auctoritas sit. Sanctus papa Gregorius in libro Pastorali: « Quisquis bonum majus subire, » inquit, « proposuit, bonum minus, quod potuit, sibi illicitum fecit. » Ad quod probandum subjicit testimonium de Evangelio, dicens: Nemo mittens manum suam ad aratrum, et respiciens retro, aptus est regno coelorum, et infert: « Qui igitur fortiori studio intenderat, retro respicere convincitur, si relictis bonis amplioribus ad minima retorquetur. » Item ipse in Homilia tertia super Ezechielem: « Sunt nonnulli, qui bona quidem quae noverunt, operantur, atque haec operantes meliora deliberant; sed retractantes, meliora quae deliberaverant, immutant. Et quidem bona agunt quae coeperant, sed a melioribus quae deliberaverant, succumbunt. Hi nimirum ante humana judicia stare videntur in opere; sed ante omnipotentis Dei oculos occiderunt in deliberatione. »
2. En speculum. In hoc non vultum nativitatis, sed factum reversionis suae considerent: hic se discutiant, hic se dijudicent, cogitationibus suis accusantibus sive defendentibus, et quidem apud spiritualem qui omnia dijudicat, et ipse a nemine judicatur. Quidnam vero majus aut minus, superius aut inferius, arctius sive remissius sit, quod videlicet reliquerunt, an ad quod redierunt; ego quidem haud temere definierim, ipsi viderint. Et hoc illis Gregorius. Tibi vero, pater reverende, tam tuta certitudine, quam nuda veritate ego dixerim, omnino non expedire spiritum velle exstinguere. Noli, inquit, prohibere eum qui potest bene facere; sed, si vales, et ipse bene fac. Gloriari autem magis oportet in profectibus filiorum, quoniam filius sapiens gloria est patris. De caetero nemo mihi molestus sit, quod justitiam Dei non abscondi in corde meo: nisi quod minus fortasse, ob vitandum scandalum, quam debui, dixi.